By Candie Cooper - To see more from Candie visit her blog Candie Cooper's Journal

I've spent a good amount of time in the lawn and garden sections at retailers this year.  I love the cute whimsies to decorate your garden with.  One thing that especially caught my eye was the pot hangers from raccoons to frogs and gnomes.  Inspired, I created some special Independence Day decorations that can hang from flowerpots.  

You will need:
Folk Art paint in red, white, and blue, silver Duck tape, acrylic gems, sparkly chenille stems, Mod Podge Hard Coat, paintbrushes, silver letter beads, desired wood shapes, paper and scissors.

Punch a hold in the wood shape with a drill or thumb tack.  Paint the shapes in blue and red and while the paint is still wet, brush white over tops in different designs (I used swirls and slashes).  Set aside to dry.  Use a contrasting color and the end of your paint brush to make dots around the edge of the shapes.

Put Duck tape on paper and cut out shapes to embellish the designs--a body for the butterfly, strips for the flower petals.  Use Mod Podge hard coat to attach them to the wood pieces.  You can also adhere the acrylic gems with the MP hard coat.  While those dry, spell out AMERICA or USA onto the chenille stems.  

String the stem through the hole in the wood shape, folding in half and then folding the top half again to make the hook.  For the flower, I added an extra piece that twirled from the side with USA beads.

Have a very safe and happy holiday from us at Plaid!